The present invention relates to a method for continuous treatment of a cloth with the use of low-temperature plasma and an apparatus therefor. The cloth comprises woven, knitted and non-woven ones, and the treatment comprises pretreatment and finishing, particularly resin finishing.
In subjecting a cloth to pretreatment such as desizing and scouring industrially, large quantities of treating agent, water resource and energy must be consumed. For instance, in scouring a cloth, the cloth is treated with an alkaline solution containing such agent as caustic soda or soda ash and a scouring agent by boiling or by steaming for solubilizing water repellent foreign matters contained in the cloth, then the cloth is repeatedly washed with water for removing solubilized foreign matters and the agents adhering to the cloth, and the cloth is finally dried.
In finishing treatment of a cloth such as water repellent finish, antistatic finish and soil release finish, the cloth is treated with a finishing agent dissolved or dispersed in water, also consuming large quantities of treating agent, water and energy.
Under such circumstances, it has recently been proposed to subject a cloth to a low-temperature plasma treatment for desizing and scouring, and further to finishing such as resin finish by low-temperature plasma graft polymerization. As for the reforming of a cloth by graft polymerization with the use of low-temperature plasma treatment, for instance, it is described in Acta Polymeria, 32 (1981), p.203 that acrylic acid monomer is polymerized with the use of plasma on the surface of polyester fibers, and in Textile Research Journal, May 1972, p.307 that a fluorine compound is polymerized to wool by means of plasma.
However, in low-temperature plasma treatment of a cloth, it is necessary to remove volatile matters contained in the cloth as far as possible just before the cloth is supplied in a low-temperature plasma treating chamber. The reason is that, if a cloth containing volatile matters is supplied in a low-temperature plasma atmosphere in the treating chamber, the vacuum degree of the treating chamber is lowered owing to the volatilization of the volatile matters to hinder the formation of low-temperature plasma and to cause side reactions from the reason that the volatile matters themselves act as low-temperature plasma. Further, since the life of activated surface of the cloth due to the treatment with low-temperature plasma is very short, the polymerization treatment thereof with polymerizable monomer must be done immediately after the low-temperature plasma treatment.